divided along lines of religion. and so we have this enormous tragic history that all this confront, whatever our backgrounds are, whether we are white or black or hispanic or asian or muslim or jewish or christian. the notion that in fact, in the words of a great writer who happened to win a nobel prize, william faulkner said that the task is never dead and buried that isn't passed. i think all of us are constantly confronting our history. the history in this country, and the problems that arose in colonialism. we are confronting those scars of violence and oppression and struggle and difficulty and hope. not only on the larger canvas of history, but within our own families. for me, it was not entirely obvious how, in fact, i was going to be able to integrate them put together. all of those different strands in my life. so part of my challenge growing up was to figure out how i function as someone who is black, but also has white blood in me. how i function as somebody who is american and takes pride and understands